which has been longest salted, has it placed in some spot on the staging where it is not in the way, and there has a pile made of it. There it remains [215] until the time when it is necessary to load it. At another time he will fix his rabbes or Cod eggs, which are salted daily at one of the ends of the salt-bin, as I have related. He has them taken up and carried thence to a corner of the staging, at the end on the land side ; there he has them resalted and arranges them in a pile one above another. When the pile is large he has them placed in barrels, in which they are resalted once more, but lightly, since they are saturated. They are packed in, and remain there until the time when everything is loaded. At another time he will visit his liver-butts, where oil is made. If they are full, he has it drawn off and placed in barrels, which also remain there until the embarkment. At another time he will have [216] his charniers emptied to get rid of the water and blood, and to remove all the filth which forms on top of the livers which are not melted. He always finds something to keep him busy, and to keep the others at work, for fear lest the blues [havives] may get possession of them.* The steward goes on board ship to have provision brought ashore in proportion as they are needed, or he goes to obtain water for his drink. He makes sure that the boys do that which is their duty, which is to obey everybody in everything, and to take care that the aprons of the dressers, and their sleeves, are well washed and dried, that the knives of the throaters are clean and sharp, that the staging is washed and cleared of all those bones of [217] Cod, which the dressers throw behind them and of the entrails which fall here and there, and that the aprons are clean and well washed. For the least thing of all these that is neglected, all the boys get the whip ; they are not allowed to lay the blame one upon another. Other sailors, with the pilot, have the duty to go on board to fetch salt for filling up the salt-bin. The doctor works at his garden, or goes hunting for the table of the captain. The beach-master walks around his flakes and beach, visits his Cod at one place and another, notes that which it is necessary to place in moutons, large and small, both on the flakes and the beach, and visits also those in the little piles to see if it is time to make them [218] larger. He visits also the big piles, to see if there are any which need to be placed the next day in the sun. Nobody lacks occupation. At two hours after midday they have an hour for luncheon, to smoke, or to sleep. As four o’clock approaches, the beach-master, the captain, and the pilot keep looking from time to time to see if the fishing boats are not returning. As soon as they are seen, the beach-master begins to call the crew. When he calls they have to leave every kind of work and go to him. Then he sends some to turn the flakes, and tells them, “You are to place that in little moutons, that in large ; that [219] you will carry upon the beach,” and he sends others to the beach to do the same thing.The Cod which ought to be placed in a pile the beach-master and the pilot have brought by armfuls, and make it into piles, some large and others small,

* This word havives does not occur in French lexicons. As Professor Cohn, of Columbia University, has suggested to me, it is probably simply a misprint for hanvies, of which our modern form is ennui. Our author’s use of it, of course, involves a pleasantry.

p. 2069

according as they think best. Whilst that is being done, the fishermen arrive at the staging and discharge their Cod. Then every one goes to prepare for dressing it after the usual routine.When the Cod has been placed several times in large moutons, it is placed in little piles, and at another time from these little piles a much larger one is made. Thus they go on every day making these piles larger, until the time when the Cod is [220] entirely dry. Of these a huge pile is made, which is not touched for more than twelve or fifteen days. Then it is rebuilt again in a pile [and remains] for a month without being touched.It is every day the same business of dressing and salting ; every morning washing and building piles on the galaires ; carrying from the galaires to the flakes, from the flakes to the beach ; on the beach building little piles at evening ; from the little piles making large ones. As to the latter, there are every morning piles to be placed upon the beach until the time when the Cod is well dried, when a pile is made which remains a month or five weeks without being touched. At the end of this time they are once more given the sun. Then they are replaced [221] in a pile for as long a time. This is done for fear lest the pile may take up some moisture, and to keep the fish always dry.